Confession is good for the soul

So Caid has been sick for about a week - a cold that turned into a deep cough on Sunday night. On Tuesday we took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with bronchial asthma and prescribed breathing treatments and steroids. He was feeling much better yesterday and this morning we were sending him back to school.

As we got in the car, I remembered I had not given him his medicine, so I ran back in the house grabbed a pill from the bottle with his name on it and a cup of water, and shoved it to him in the back seat. I dropped him off for school, and twenty minutes later received a call informing me that he was so sick he threw up in class, threw up as they carried him down the hall - too weak to walk, and threw up more in the clinic. What the heck!?

My husband was able to run get him and we talked on the phone trying to figure out what had caused this relapse. I pondered whether I should have given him the medicine with food and asked Danny to check the bottle. With alarm in his voice, he said, "Did you give him this medicine on the counter?" Uh, yeah. "This isn't his medicine. This is Ambien." What?!? I gave my baby a prescription sleeping pill?!!?  I pulled into CVS and conferred with the pharmacist, who called Poison Control, and was reassured that I had not given him enough to be toxic.

Caid and his daddy share the same first name, and therein lay the confusion. Thankfully, Caid managed to upchuck the offending medicine, and after a nap was feeling just fine. Well rested, even.

But I voluntarily took myself off the list of nominees for "Mother of the Year." And then I got to thinking, I probably should have removed myself a long time ago.

Other reasons I should not be under consideration for "Mother of the Year" (aside from the fact I gave my six-year-old an adult strength, prescription sleeping pill by accident):

1. Jack has been wearing the same shirt for four five days in a row. I guess that means he has not bathed since Sunday.

2. Gracie had to walk laps at recess in second grade because I forgot to sign her agenda - even though she handed it to me with a pen.

3. Sometimes I send my kids to school wearing socks of different colors because I just hate sorting socks. In fact, I've been known to go out and buy new socks rather than sorting the socks in my laundry basket.

4. I only wash my kids' sheets once a month... if that much.

5. The tooth fairy frequently forgets to come to our house on the first night after a tooth is lost.

6. I have rarely allowed my kids to listen to "kid music" in the car, preferring instead to listen to my own radio station. I found it amusing that one of the first songs Caid knew all the words to was "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard.

7. I have allowed Gracie to stay home from school because I didn't feel like fighting about it when she told me she didn't feel good even though I knew she was well enough to go. Conversely, I have sent her to school when she said she didn't feel good and I thought she was faking, only to get a call from the school nurse an hour later telling me she has a fever of 100.

8. It is October 29, and I have not yet purchased or made my children's Halloween costumes. In fact, I'm still not sure what they will be.

9. I consider an oatmeal cream pie and a cup of Sunny D a balanced breakfast.

10. I write a blog telling tales that will surely embarrass my children some day... and quite possibly already does.